Sorry about the hiatus, well it wasn’t really a hiatus more like lazy Sunday stretched through an entire week. Well what shall we chat about, huh? I am sure everyone’s classes are starting to pick up as mine. The first couple weeks always seem to be the slow start with a few minor assignments and them BAM! comes the heavy stuff. Well I guess it had to happen sometime or another right?
Let’s start this off with a small personal experience. I have been going through a lot this past month. It’s not really an excuse for my lack of blog last week but this will be eventually school related so bare/bear with me.
I found this warehouse job, pays 14.50/hr plus medical, and it’s not that bad. I work the night shift from Sunday night to Thursday not, and go in at 6pm and then get off anywhere between 2am and 5am. We supply all the food and supplies for every Sonic and Burger King in the Midwest, plus a ton of small restaurant chains, bars, stores and stuff, and on top of that we have Omaha public schools, Lincoln public schools, some Iowa accounts, and Kansas City public schools. So ever since the school year started we’ve been working 10 to 11 hr shifts every night. Along with that, I take full time classes every Tuesday and Thursdays here at Iowa Western, so my weeks are freaking busy.
Well about a month back I was driving one of the pallet jacks, the kind where you stand in front on a small lip, and the old thing didn’t stop when I tried to stop it. Now these things weigh more than 3 cars and apparently no part of the human body can stop them when they are only going 1 mph. Well I was going about 5mph and the thing decided not to stop but run my legs under a steel table. After I got unstuck I fell off and immediately threw up due to the pain. I could have sworn my legs were broken but after about 15 minutes I could bend them. It took about 45 before I could stand for longer than a minute without getting dizzy. I went to the ER and they said I was lucky as heck and only had some major bruising. After a week I didn’t buy the bruising bit so I went to the company doctor, and he found two massive blood clots on my right leg. So yea, not cool. It’s been a month now and the clots are still there but considerably smaller, and I’m back to regular work. But on top of that I’ve been in two car wrecks in the past month because of STUPID drivers, and now their RETARDED insurance agencies are giving me problems, but I’m letting progressive take care of that.
So yes, kind of a busy schedule lately. But now to the point. I have used these events as excuses to not work on my online class. Well thankfully the online classes are only on week 4 and regular classes are on week 6 now? Not sure, but yea. So I took a weekend to catch up, but unfortunately there is no way I will receive an ‘A,’ but I will pass. So lesson to be learned, don’t procrastinate online classes just because the teacher won’t glare at you in class. It will come back and bite ya.
Oh and just a small pointer. We have been discussing MID-Terms in SCI FI / Fantasy Lit. as most classes probably have been. After taking a general consensus it seems that many classes will require not only a paper to be turned in, but some form of demonstration or presentation. Now each class is different, but just in case you were wondering…. you may not stand in front of the class and reenact a scene from your favourite movie with action figures. That’s right, no action figure performances are allowed. Yes someone actually asked if they could do that. SAD I KNOW.
Ok, so if you listen to the radio, a newer song is getting more playtime. “Fireflies” by the band OWL City has started aflame. Originally it aired as a turn it or burn it song on 89.7 the River, and didn’t do so well. Now it seems like the song is back and making raves. The band will be playing at the Waiting Room on Oct 9th, so I thought I would provide the music video for their current hit.
Also, Peter Rallis of Movie Buzz has survived the Swine Flu! So that’s a good thing. he has put out a couple more shows to make up for it, but I will only include the most current.
Alrighty folks. I will be taking the camera to school this week. Perhaps we will get a pic of the man responsible for our funny supply of quotes. And some other things I have planned. Have a good week, talk to you soon
Good afternoon, good morning or good evening… whatever. Obviously it is some time of day and you are reading this, so… well done on your part. My name is Josh Howell, I am currently a student at Iowa Western and have been chosen to delight you with words. LOL. Here’s the thing, however you stumbled on to this blog, whether you are a student or a prospective student, I know what you’re thinking. You spend most of your day, probably most of your week at school already. Why would you possible want to waste your time reading about someone else’s school experiences? Well that’s just it. This Blog has NOTHING TO DO WITH THAT! THIS IS NOT A JOURNAL, DIARY OR CONFESSIONAL. Look folks, of course it has to be IWCC related, but trust me… we can have some fun with this.
So first thing’s first. You can read my bio to get to know me, but that doesn’t necessarily tell you what you can expect in this weekly blog. So here’s a brief summary. I like to put a spin on things. Class can be boring as the day is long, but if you look hard enough you can find humour. And in that humour, there’s always something to learn. But we will get to that shortly. While reading these entries you might sometimes come acrossed a word or phrase you either haven’t heard before or not in a long time. These are my fun phrases, I use them a lot. For example, instead of saying ‘whoopty-do’ I might say ‘whoopty-thrill.’ This is simply because my grandmother used it a lot when i was young and it grew on me. One of the phrases that you will not hear me say is “That’s so gay.” Now this is not because I sympathize or support any kind of activist group or whatever. No this is solely based on a recent discovery that if you say that phrase, this might happen to you:
I don’t know about you, but that would scare the crap out of me; some random celebrity bothering me…weird. So instead of saying “that’s so gay,” I’ll say something else, like “that’s so retarded.” I searched youtube and apparently there doesn’t seem to be an self-loving attenion-needing celebrities crying and moaning about making fun of mentally ill people….aww satire. lol
You might have noticed that a better word could have been used in that last sentence instead of ‘crying’ and moaning. Well due to this being affiliated with IWCC, there are a few rules. One of them is a strict no profanity policy. So we will have to live with that. On top of that, there is another policy which says that I can’t talk about drinking or some of the more mature actions that are sometimes follow drinking. While I and possibly a good deal of you are over 21, and we all know about the legendary parties that go hand in hand with college… I will have to refrain from sharing my adventures. Sad I know, but there are plenty of thing s that go on in the day, even the school day, that are worth discussing.
Since this is my first post and we are all still in the early weeks of school, I thought I would provide a list of DO’s and DON’Ts based on some epic fails that I have witnessed in the past weeks. Ok well maybe they aren’t epic, but if it makes your experience at IWCC easier, well then it’s worth sharing. Now as there are real events, I won’t mention any names, but I do want to say that this is less to make fun of them and more to educate you.
The first involves clothing. No I am not about to throw you a second-hand knockoff of you local Target’s back to school fashion commercial. This is a little simpler. Let’s set the setting first. My favorite class so far is Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature. Yes there are some nerds and geeks in attendance (no offense, be true to who you are lol) but you don’t have to play World of Warcraft or be able to speak Elvish to enjoy this class. I don’t do either of those and I find the class to be quite riveting and entertaining. The class is taught by the charming Prof. Coreen Wees, who is more than perfect for the job; she’s intelligent, has great taste is literature, and wears glasses.
…some of you might immediately be wondering what direct relevance sci fi/fantasy literature has to wearing glasses.There is none, I just thought I’d tell you she wears glasses.
Ok so back to the point, as we got off topic there a bit. I’m sitting in class, and as people start filing in I notice that some people have the same shirt on. Now when everyone shops at the same malls or department stores, it is not a surprise that multiple people might have the same clothes, but when three grown men are all wearing the same iron man tee-shirt… there’s a problem. Here’s the tip, if you feel that there are certain people in close proximity to you that have the potential of copying your daily attire then you should act now before it’s too late. If you have to physically hunt these people down, get their information and literally call them every morning to verify that your clothes aren’t the same, then I say DO IT. Otherwise you might find yourself in the middle of a joke that will refuse to die even after days or weeks have passed; much like the three gentlemen in my class. As it is clear to that the “you guys are wearing different shirts today” comment is no longer funny to them, but is also clear that to everyone is, it still is.
Tip Deux involves women’s approach to men. Ladies, we love ya. You are all beautiful in your own way, whether you know it or not. But I’m not going to address that right now. No this is more about some of you with incredibly LARGE EGOs. Now we all know the stereotypes of college involving boys trying to get with as many girls as possible. The idea is plastered in the movies, the books, and the “I love College” songs. In real life, not all guys are like that. Not every guy that comes up to you wants your number, wants to seduce you, or even wants to date. This is not an attack on your self-esteem but a mere point that there are some gentlemen who simply like to befriend persons of the opposite sex. So there is no need to be a prissy Paris Geller when they try to say hi (yes I just made a Gilmore Girls reference, I know, it won’t happen again, I swear I just lost a bet, get over it). And now for the perfect example: let’s say you happen to be in the admissions office for last minute late-registration, and a guy (that’d be me) happens to enter the office and smiles at you. You can ignore him then, it is perfectly alright; you are busy, and it was just a smile any way. So the next day you enter your class (Sci fi/fantasy lit again) and he happens to be in the same class. This is slightly awkward, yes, but not really. So this guy might turn around before class starts and as a convo-starter he might ask something like “hey didn’t I see you yesterday in the admissions office registering for classes?” Now what possible excuse do you have for saying “NO” and giving him a dirty face? Last time I checked his question wasn’t code for “do you wanna spend the night at my place tonight?” Being a harpy about it (aww I love using synonyms) doesn’t make you look more independent or appealing. It only makes you look stupid. Especially when five seconds later the teacher asks for all late registration students to make themselves known and you are forced to do so. Tisk Tisk…lame
Tip three, this is for the guys. Gents, when you are sitting/standing in hall, outside, cafeteria, classroom or anywhere else on campus, and the ‘parade’ of women passes by… take a second to look at yourself. Yes, we all know that there are some gorgeous female attendees at our school; however they are more than eye candy. If you beg to differ and require more proof, I ask that you reach into your early school memories and recall the catchy tune ‘Them Bones’ in which through discussing which bone is connected to which, you might derive that there is more to the female body than the chest or caboose (yes I watered that down, get over it lol). Furthermore, there is more to the essence of a female that her body alone! Big clue…she’s in college. So instead of trying to bring sexy back by staring at her uncontrollably and drooling, why don’t you initiate the return of chivalry by smiling and shifting your glance higher.
Alright, well that’s enough of that for now. There are a couple of other things I want to involve in this blog that I think you will like. As you probably noticed in my bio, I am and big music and movies fan. Now it makes no sense to me that this blog be affiliated with the same campus that serves as home to THE RIVER, and not mention anything about music. While it is neither my job nor privilege to introduce you to new and current music on “The Cutting EDGE of Rock,” I can provide other services. THE RIVER is known for bringing concerts to the metro. So I thought it would be fun to post music videos of upcoming bands or of bands that should be put on the roster. So here is the first of many. The band ‘SKILLET’ came to Omaha in May as part of their Comatose Tour. If you haven’t heard of them, they have come a long way and have grown in popularity over the past several years. With a recent release of their new album ‘AWAKE’ they debuted their first music video for the album this week. So here you go.
Also since I am into movies, I love watching reviews and reading about upcoming movie news. While I know where to find out for myself, I have found a guy on youtube named Peter Rallis. I love this guy, He’s hilarious, very well informed, and best of all…he hates Zach Efron so he’s good by me. So if you would like to hear about current and upcoming movies, his two shows a week are the ones to watch. Unfortunately his most recent video of MOVIE BUZZ involved him showing us his temperature of 102.5 and saying he might have the swine flu, so I will show you the vid from before.
Alright so apparently I need place two pics in every blog. I don’t know if videos are good as substitutes, but if not I need to put some in here. As I am slightly unprepared and don’t necessarily bring a camera to school…. I will leave you with an old aerial shot of our beloved school. As well as…umm let’s see…well since I am not particularly fond of my profile pic, I’m going to share another one with you.
This is us
That's right...that's me
Pretty handsome right, I thought so. Alright folks, that’s all for now. I hope you enjoyed it and come back for more. Laters
